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When deciding to buy organic, I often wonder about the treatment of the seeds as this is the originating source of all fruit and vegetables.
You may have chemical free soil and farm practices but what about the evolution from the seed itself. Does this comprimise the premise of what truly is organic food?

Well according to the Australian Certified Organic Association, there must be a declaration from non-organic seeds suppliers that the seeds are declared GM free and not derived from a GM source.

According to the Australian Organic Standard, as of the 1st June 2008, seed and propagative material shall be required to be sourced from organic sources only.
Furthermore they state that Genetically modified products and genetically engineered processes involved in the organic production processes are prohibited.

The interesting thing is genetic contamination whereby GM crops situated within close proximity to a non GM area may lead to compromising the integrity of the non GM crops, a difficult situation to mange given the natural processes of pollination by insects and the traveling of seeds and other material by winds and insects.

There must according to the Australian Organic Standard be a risk management policy in place to regulate cross contamination.
The interesting point is whether ultimately all non GM crops will suffer from some level of contamination as you cannot quarantine any area from the natural process, even a vast ocean cannot limit this contamination if a country is totally GM free.

Have you ever looked at food packaging and wondered what the word “fresh” really means?
According to the Australian Macquarie Dictionary, the word fresh means: newly made or obtained etc, not canned or frozen, not preserved by pickling, salting drying, etc

So when you see Orange juice called “Australian Fresh” or Olives in oil called “Always fresh”, is this a subtle way of getting the word “fresh” onto the packaging by having the word in the company name but not in the products description?

The Australian Fresh Orange juice has a used by date of 4th September 2010 (Used by 02 SEP 10L L3 18:43 on packaging), as I purchased the juice last night, the 17th so allowing for the manufacturing and distribution cycle of perhaps 2 days, and assuming the product was delivered yesterday, is a 20 day old product still considered fresh?

Foods Standards Australia and New Zealand doesn’t have guidelines in regards to food labeling, this is handled by the various state bodies. In Victoria this covered by Human Services under their Food Safety and Regulatory Activities Unit.

Ultimately it comes down to what a court deems the health claim or term to be true, funny enough it comes down to the definition in the Macquarie Dictionary and what a lay person would consider to be true.

A lot of orange juice that is blended from local and imported oranges or even reconstituted juice uses aseptic juice.

So what is aseptic juice anyway, well when the oranges are originally squeezed the juice is heated to kill any bacteria and then kept in cool rooms for anywhere up to 2 years.

Does this sound fresh to you??? As soon as you heat or expose the juice to UV light or oxygen it starts to deteriorate and lose all the nutrients. So the end result is that all that vitamin C needs to be replenished by adding “Vitamin C”. With the “Australian Fresh” Orange juice, vitamin C is added.

Aseptic processing removes most of the nutrients found in orange juice, reduces the taste of the juice and changes its colour.
The other part of the equation is the bulk buying of oranges from local growers when the price is the most attractive and processing the juice for consumption throughout the year.
I’ve never seen on the packaging, oranges have been squeezed on the 8/8/10.

When you buy bread, it usually says “Baked on the xx/xx/xx. I would like to see on the packaging “Oranges squeezed on 10/08/10″

Imagine if you went to a baker and you asked “is the bread fresh” and they said “yes, it was baked 2 days ago” or if you went to a takeaway that had pasta in a bain marie and the response was it was cooked 2 days ago, would you accept this as being fresh?

The other process is “reconstitition” whereby the water is original removed by evaporation from the juice for transportation or storage purposes and reconstituted by adding water back to the concentrate. This process doesn’t sound like the juice would be very fresh?

Getting back to the “Always fresh” “Deli Style Kalamata Olives” would you consider a product that has vegetable oil, salt and preservatives a fresh product? Although “Always Fresh” doesn’t necessarily imply it is fresh, it does confuse consumers when trying to make a decision when looking at a multitude of products.

I was speaking to the owner of a reasonable sized baker, not one of the franchised varieties about gluten free bread. Mr baker informed me that while there is plenty of talk about people buying gluten free bread, other than those people who suffer from Celiac Disease disease, those people being financially constrained would generally go for the cheaper option.

Upon showing me his recipe for gluten free bread, it had all the good stuff in there, potato & rice flour, eggs, yeast and some other ingredients but nothing artificial. The interesting fact was the ingredients list of the “pre made” gluten flour that he users when some of the more exotic flours are unavailable. Using all the good ingredients makes the bread relatively more expensive than a cheaper pre mixed “Bakers flour & Bakers yeast” varieties.

It contained several preservatives that were “potentially unsafe” such as E282 Calcium Propionate or another chemical (which I can’t remember) that is also potentially unsafe, that is an extract from bleached timber (referenced my my “additives” iphone app).

Nutrition Application from iphone

Using this premixed variety was cheaper than using all the non chemical based ingredients. From his own observations people who were suffering from financial hardship would seek cheap food alternatives. As funds were very limited to buy wholesome foods. a cheaper alternative and would resort to the highly manufactured, highly processed breads that contained very little nutritional value with heaps of chemicals and additives to aid shelf life, colour, consistency, flavour and taste.
Why pay $3 -$4 for a loaf of bread from a good bakery with healthy ingredients when you can go to one of the big supermarkets and pay under $2.

Unfortunately our modern societies has heaps of additional costs that we incur on an ongoing basis, such as our monthly mobile phone and internet bills, upgrading electronic devices regularly, flat panel TV’s, computers, computer software, kitchen appliances, clothes, the latest shoes, eating out, takeaway etc, costs that weren’t there 50 years ago.

Ultimately something has to give and unfortunately it’s our health with the cheapest food option being the only solution to save $$$ but if this a high price to pay for your health??

With energy drinks, caffeine and other stimulants consumption on the increase, are re we turning into a sleep deprived overworked society?
With the latest revelations about The AFL’s acceptance of caffeine loading by AFL players, is this setting a good example for those who look up to these players for inspiration.

Unfortunately energy drinks represent the strongest beverage growth segment worth a staggering $593 or 23% of the impulse market in 2009, with only soft drinks representing occupying the number one spot for highest market share according to Neilsen data

Just look at the growth in coffee on recent years, the good old international roast has been replaced with a cappuccino or latte on the way to work. Even McDonalds, not to miss out on the coffee revolution has European style coffee at there drive throughs and restaurants. (I’m yet be be convinced you can produce a great coffee from a manual)

The most disturbing trend are the number of children consuming energy drinks like there having a soft drink. Suddenly the regular 250ml energy drink such as V and Red Bull has grown in size.
Not to be out done Coke Cola released there own brand called “Mother” to appeal to the youth market, with a mega can at 500ml at a whopping 32mg caffeine per 100ml or 160mg of caffeine.

The real concern is that consuming this level of caffeine on a regular basis is not great for your health. The promotion of these products are so wide spread that even when you fill up at your local petrol station there are advertisements for these types of products.

The most disturbing part of our over reliance on stimulants is why.
Are we trying to gave it all, family life, friends, the McMansion, all the conveniences of modern life, mobile phones, home computers, video games, Internet accounts, stuff, new cars, long stressful hours in the office to pay for this stuff or the time spent using these new acquisitions.

Well something has to give and it’s your health, so are we on stimulant over consumption mode to squeeze more onto the day?

It’s amazing what people are eating in the mornings, especially what they are feeding their children given the high levels of childhood obesity and increasing rates of Type II diabetes.

While I was in the Melbourne CBD, I was given this brochure and mini packet of Sultana Bran.

While kids are kids and getting them to eat a healthy breakfast is difficult enough, is giving them a sugary breakfast cereal the answer?
When I was a kid we had branded kids cereals which was ok given that we didn’t consume any more highly processed foods sugary foods during the day or evening. Fast forward a few years and the average kid is surrounded by a huge range of confectionery and other purported healthy muesli bars etc.

What is more disturbing is that the marketing is very cleverly pitched at parents by making the notion of connecting more with their teenage children amusing over a bowl of Sultana bran.

With an average serving based on 45grams, it contains 12.8grams of sugar or 28.4%, so with your average growing teenager need more than a teenee weenee pack, the amount of sugar consumed is quite high at 28% of the recommended daily intake if 90grams or 2 servings is consumed.

What is needed is a more coherent strategy with advertising standards and a simplified food labeling system. This will help to quickly identify those products that are high in salt, sugar and fats by removing any confusion and incorrect emphasis on fats and then neglecting the sugar or total energy content.